


The First Date, Carlos' Perspective

by FabulousFanficFairy



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Episode: e027 First Date, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 06:48:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11076237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FabulousFanficFairy/pseuds/FabulousFanficFairy
Summary: Carlos has his first date with his radio show host, and he hopes it goes well. Also, it's hard to take time away from doing science, but Cecil is worth it.





	The First Date, Carlos' Perspective

“As always, good night, Nightvale. Goodnight.” The smooth voice flowed from the radio on the table, and I glanced at my watch.

“CRAP!” I should have stopped the experiment thirty seconds ago, and would have to redo it. I always got distracted by Cecil’s radio show. Eventually, I’d have to take the radio out of the lab.

I dumped the chemicals into a collection bucket, and went to grab some more vials. Then I heard a car drive up to my lab/house.

THE DATE! It was my first date with Cecil, the radio host for Nightvale Community Radio. 

It was no secret to the town that he liked me. He was very open about his personal life during his talk show, and had often mentioned me, and what he called my ‘perfect hair.’

The thing that people didn’t know was how much I liked him back. The first time he mentioned me on the radio, I had stopped in my tracks, and almost dropped the things in my hands out of shock. That would have been dangerous, because, well, it was a beaker full of fire. Well, originally chemicals, but what had become fire. But I didn’t drop it, which was good. 

I heard knocking at my door, just as I finished cleaning up my experiment, and put away my notebook, vials, chemicals, and the bloodstone I’d been examining. I ran to the door, ripping off my safety goggles as I went.

Quickly, I swung the door open, and nearly hit myself in the face with it. “Cecil! Hi!”

Cecil smiled, with his hands in his pockets. “Ready?”

I nodded, and we both walked out to his car. We drove in silence for a few moments, before he spoke. “So, what science stuff are you doing these days?”

“Oh, well I was analyzing a small bloodstone that I found. It’s very interesting, you know, because everyone seems to believe that they have some sort of supernatural power, so I wondered if that power could be measured scientifically. The first time I did an experiment on one, though, it reacted very strongly to the chemicals I was using, and burst into flames. Right in my HANDS! But, don’t worry, because the beaker I had it in was fireproof. Mostly.”

“You didn’t burn yourself, or anything? Let me see your hands.” Cecil went to reach for my hands, taking both of  _ his _ hands off of the steering wheel. I had to grab it quickly, and jerked the car back into the lane.

“Cecil, I’m fine. A scientist is  _ always  _ fine.”

“So, what did you find out?” Cecil seemed so eager for me to tell him more, which seemed strange. Back home, nobody really liked to listen to my science talk, other than my few work colleagues.

“You don’t mind listening to me talking about science? It’s not boring?”

Cecil smiled, and his third eye blinked, but not in unison with the other two. “I’m  _ very  _ into science these days.”

“Well, I took the bloodstone, which hadn’t been harmed by the fire, and ran a few more tests on it. I checked for electric current both in it and around it, then measured it’s densisty again, to see if the fire had changed it. I thought it would have, because maybe the matter of the bloodstone had turned to energy, making it start the fire, but it hadn’t. The bloodstone hadn’t changed at all during the fire.”

We pulled up to the restaurant, and we both got out. I continued to describe the experiment, and I guess I wasn’t really paying attention, because before I knew it, we were inside and seated. We ordered, both the same thing, and the waiter left.

After a few moments, Cecil turned to me, and I couldn’t help but notice how his shirt really made his third eye pop. 

I waited for him to speak, but he didn’t. He was just looking at my hair. He  _ really  _ liked my hair. Unconsciously, I ran my hand through it, and Cecil smiled.

“So, how’s Khoshekh?” I asked, somewhat awkwardly. I really, mostly, only know how to talk about science.

“Hmmm?” Cecil asked, broken from a trance. 

“How’s Khoshekh?” 

At this, Cecil’s eyes lit up, and he went on to tell a long story about the sweet cat, who was floating stationary four feet above the floor in the men’s bathroom of the radio station. Apparently, Khoshekh was going to have kittens, which didn’t really scientifically make sense, because of both the facts that he was stationary and never saw other cats, and because he was a male. 

“I’d like to meet this Khoshekh. Sadly, though, I’m allergic to cats.”

“Oh, I can buy you some Claritin, and you should come down to the station. Maybe you could even guest star on the show!”

I smiled, but the waiter came with our mushrooms and blood sauce before I could reply. 

It was only after the waiter left that I realized that we were in a room with no doors. How the waiter got out, or how we got in, was beyond me.

“Carlos.” Cecil spoke, pulling me from my thoughts. “You like the mushrooms?”

I nodded, quickly taking a bite. “It’s kind of weird that there are only mushrooms, no pasta or anything, but it’s good.”

“Well, pasta would be a wheat by-product, and that’s illegal. Besides, it would probably turn into venomous snakes, and unless you want to die, you probably wouldn’t like that.”

“No, I wouldn’t like to die. I have too much research to do. As I told you earlier, Nightvale is the most scientifically interestingly place that I’ve ever been.”

Cecil smiled, and we continued to eat, and chatted pleasantly about science, and other general Nightvale stuff. Eventually the waiter came to clear away our empty plates, and Cecil ordered us both some type of dessert. The waiter disappeared again, and although I made an effort to watch him go, I couldn’t really tell how he go out. One minute he was in the room, and the next he wasn’t, which definitely didn’t make sense. Scientifically, I mean. Or in any other way. It  _ really  _ didn’t make sense. Not a lot about Night Vale made any sense. That’s why there was so much research to do. 

I sighed, and shook my head, trying to bring my thoughts to the present. I turned back to look at Cecil, who was gazing lovingly at me. His cheek was resting on his hand, propped up by his elbow that was on the table.  I couldn’t help but smile, looking into his three eyes. I’d been stressed just moments earlier, but Cecil’s calm face made me relax a little. Though, after a moment, I wasn’t sure what to do with the momentary lull in conversation. I only really know how to talk about science.

“So,” I began uncertainly, not really sure where my words were going.

Cecil’s two eyes blinked a moment before the third did. Sometimes the blinks matched up, and sometimes they didn’t. His head jerked up a little.

“Sorry,” He smiled apologetically. “Got lost in thought for a moment.”

“Oh, I do that all the time.” I waved my hand in a ‘oh it's fine’ kind of motion, then almost laughed as I remembered something. “There was this one time, as I kid, that I was experimenting with some common household chemicals, you know, like bleach, baking soda, fransium, water, that kind of thing? Anyway, I got distracted and dropped the tiny bit of francium that I had, like TINY bit. I could barely see it, it was so small. It landed in my bleach-baking soda solution, and promptly exploded in my face. Completely destroyed my mother’s kitchen.” 

I laughed thinking of the mess I’d made. Though, looking at Cecil (who had only slightly chuckled) I was surprised to see a look of amazement on his face. 

“Neat.”

I could feel myself start to blush, so I quickly wrapped up the story. “Anyway, other than a few beatings from my mother, I was fine.  A scientist is always fine, so I wasn’t surprised. We did have to rebuild the kitchen, though, and my mother wasn’t  _ too  _  happy about that.”

As my words drifted off, I ran my hands through my hair, noticing how long it was getting.   _ Maybe I should get it cut?  _ I thought. 

The waiter arrived, bearing two plates of the most delicious invisible, tasteless, and textureless carrot cake I had ever had.

All too soon our cake was gone, and we were smashing through the window with a conveniently placed brick. We loaded into Cecil’s car, and he began to drive me back to my lab. I wasn’t really sure what to say, and wasted the entire ride with thinking. I could have been talking, and enjoying Cecil’s voice, but couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Not one thing. I struggled to find even casual conversation, and before I knew it, we were heading down my street.

_ It’s almost over, Carlos. You’re gonna do it. You can do it.  _

The car stopped. I unbuckled my seatbelt, as Cecil turned to say goodbye. Just as he opened him mouth to speak, I finally found the courage, and leaned forward. Our lips touched for one magical, short moment, and then my courage left me. I slid out of the car, waved quickly to  Cecil, and hurried into my lab. Slamming the door quickly shut, I leaned against the wall. My hands were shaking, and so were my knees. But, it was a good kind of shaking. A very good shaking. My heart felt light and fluttery, and sighed gently as I watched, through the window, as Cecil’s car pulled away. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short fic I wrote, mostly out of boredom. I don't plan on adding to it, but I hope you liked it anyway!


End file.
